Reaction Paper on Socrates’ Concept of the Self

Introduction about the story, titled “socrates’ concept of the self” , it shows us the works and
ideas of this Greek philosopher on how to manage or understand the concept of the self.
Socrates was the one who influenced countless thinkers throughout generations even to this
day for he is known for his method, the Socratic Method. For he famously said that “ultimate
wisdom comes from knowing oneself”. Socrates’ concept of the soul should not be viewed from
the vantage point of christianity, the soul mentioned by the philosopher is a thinking and a willing
subject for us explaining that the soul is the essence of a human person for this is a person’s
true self. His ultimate goal for his philosophy is to have a good life, for we need to take care of
the soul in order for us to attain a good life and to examine our own lives. Socrates’ means of
good life is being wise and virtue for this is his famous socratic dictum that knowing what is right
is doing what is right, for he even said that those who commit evil acts are ignorant of the truth,
for the true self is one that is lived with knowledge, wisdom, and virtue.

My take on socrates’s concept of the self is that understanding the concept of self is one of the
ultimate knowledge that you can learn as a person for this can help us search for
self-knowledge and eventually we would discover our true self to pertain a good life. My
understanding of what he left us, is that we need to live our lives to the edge of wisdom,
knowledge, and virtue because someday we need to leave this world we live in and by
achieving the full potential of yourself is the one thing you don’t wanna regret. Also, the soul of a
body is the thing that describes the one’s true self of one human being, for its state of a soul is
the person’s inner being which determines the quality of one’s life. Socrates’ idea of the concept
of the self is very entertaining to learn because we can value it through our lives. It makes me
curious about what could happen if I achieve this kind of skill by taking care of myself or my soul
to achieve a good life to have wisdom and knowledge and virtue and to also examine my life.
Overall the lesson was very new to me and I would recommend this to others to learn and
understand the concept of the self by Socrates.